IF WE LOSE THE SENSE OF GOD, WE LOSE THE SENSE OF LIFE

VATICAN CITY, DEC 1, 2002 (VIS) - Following his encounter this morning with the Filipino community residing in Rome, Pope John Paul appeared at noon at the window of his study overlooking St. Peter's Square to recite the Angelus prayer with the faithful who had come to the square on this first Sunday of Advent.

Noting that today "we start a new liturgical year," the Pope said that "the God of the Covenant revealed Himself in history, and in history the Church celebrates His mystery of salvation: the Incarnation, the Passion and the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ."

He added that "God is the future of the world. If it loses the sense of God, humanity closes itself to the future and inevitably loses the prospect of its pilgrimage in time. Why be born, why die? Why sacrifice ourselves, why suffer? Christianity offers a gratifying answer to these question. For this, Christ is the hope of mankind. It is He Who is the true sense of our present, because He is our certain future."

"Advent," affirmed the Holy Father, "reminds us that He came, but that He will come again. And the life of believers is a continual and hopeful vigil of His coming. The invitation to be vigilant and to wait is today underlined with insistence by St. Mark who, throughout the new liturgical year, will guide us in the discovery of the mystery of Christ."

The Pope and pilgrims then recited the Angelus together, after which John Paul II greeted those present in English, Spanish and Italian.

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